Chevri. Alphon L’Yaldei Yisrael , level 2, by Aharon Rasha”l. Textbook published by the Office for Hebrew Education and Culture in Lodz, of the Merkaz HaChalutz in Poland. Lodz, 1947. Bibliographically unknown.
48 pages. 21 cm. Colored binding and illustrations.
This book, published about two years after the Holocaust, is the first testimony to the creation of an ethos of heroism regarding the Holocaust. The book discusses Jewish and Zionist subjects such as Passover,
bikkurim, the 1st of May, Herzl and pioneering settlement. In relation to the Holocaust, the book does not make any reference to the camps or to the Jews who were killed. Instead, it focuses on the partisans and the Warsaw Ghetto Revolt. It even states [in Hebrew]: “Among the partisans there were Jewish heroes… the battles were difficult, almost all the heroes were killed, but also many Germans. Honor the memory of the Jewish heroes!”
It also features a new version of
Yizkor for those killed in the Holocaust, written in tandem with the
Yizkor Am Yisrael regarding the heroes of Tel Chai (authored by Berl Katznelson) and different from the accepted
Yizkor of Abba Kovner from the 1950s.
This rare book was authored by Aharon Rasha”l in memory of his mother who was murdered in the Baranowitz Ghetto and it includes colored pictures by Chaim Hechtkopf. The book is not in libraries in or outside of Israel and includes important historic documentation regarding Zionistic education about the Holocaust that began right after the war, before the establishment of Israel.
Original, complete colored cardboard binding. The back is broken, without loss. Aging stains. Two light tears in the gutter of the last leaf, without loss. Fine condition.